No abstract

The problem of combining pieces of information issued from several sources can be encountered in various fields of application. This paper aims at presenting the different aspects of information fusion in different domains, such as databases, regulations, preferences, sensor fusion, etc., at a quite general level. We first present different types of information encountered in fusion problems, and different aims of the fusion process. Then we focus on representation issues which are relevant when discussing fusion problems. An important issue is then addressed, the handling of conflicting information. We briefly review different domains where fusion is involved, and describe how the fusion problems are stated in each domain. Since the term fusion can have different, more or less broad, meanings, we specify later some terminology with respect to related problems, that might be included in a broad meaning of fusion. Finally we briefly discuss the difficult aspects of validation and evaluation.

This paper addresses the problem of regulation consistency checking. Regulations are sets of rules which express what is obligatory, permitted, forbidden and under which conditions. We first define a first order language to model regulations. Then we introduce a definition of regulation consistency. We show that checking the consistency of a regulation comes to generate some particular consequences of some first order formulas. Then, we show that we can apply Inoue's inference rule, SOL-resolution, which is complete for generating, from some clauses, their consequences which satisfy a given condition.

In this paper, we are interested in formally modeling the concept of responsibility. It appears that this concept is essential in order to reason in many norm-governed organizations. However, obtaining a formal representation of responsibility is quite complex because of the very different meanings this concept can take. Therefore, our first task will be to clarify and classify the various meanings. We then propose a logical framework and show how it enables us to model several aspects of responsibility, This framework combines a deontic logic with a logic of actions and it distinguishes between direct and indirect agencies. We finally present an example to illustrate how this framework enables us to analyze some subtleties of a specific situation.